When Alberta Premier Rachel Notley announced a boycott of British Columbia wines following B.C.’s proposed restrictions on Kinder Morgan’s $7.4-billion Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion, she raised the spectre of an all-out trade war between two of Canada’s most economically intwined provinces.

Banning B.C. wine deals a blow to a business worth about $70 million per year between the provinces, but the stakes are higher if boycotts spread into other sectors. B.C. depends on Alberta for a large share of visitors in its tourism industry, for example, and Alberta relies on B.C. ports to get its exports to markets around the world. Combined, they sold each other $34.4 billion in goods and services in 2014, the latest figures available from Statistics Canada.

Five ways B.C. benefits from Alberta

1. Tourism dollars: Alberta is a billion-dollar player in B.C.’s tourism sector as the province’s second-largest market for visitors after British Columbians themselves, as tracked by Destination B.C. Between Kootenay mountain ski trips and Okanagan lake vacations, Albertans took 2.9 million overnight trips to B.C., accounting for 14 per cent of B.C.’s overall overnight visitation in 2017, and spent $1.4 billion on hotels, restaurants and attractions. Alberta visitors mostly drive — 70 per cent of trips are by car or truck — and their average travel group is 3.1 people, who spend about five nights in the province and spend $479 per person. Just over one-third of their trips were to the Kootenays, 27 per cent visited the Thompson-Okanagan region, and 21 per cent of trips were to Vancouver and the Coast Mountains.

As a landlocked province, Alberta relies on transportation links across the province to ports in Vancouver and Prince Rupert.Gerry Kahrmann /
PNG

2. Major customer of B.C. ports: Alberta accounted for $21.4 billion in imports and exports through the Port of Vancouver in 2016, which delivered considerable benefits for both provinces. Alberta’s 2016 exports to China, Japan and the rest of Asia totalled $5.7 billion alone, the Business Council of B.C. reported last summer. Alberta, like B.C., is a major exporter, but as a landlocked province, relies on transportation links across the province to ports in Vancouver and Prince Rupert to get its grains, manufactured food and chemical products out to the world. That activity supports thousands of jobs across the transportation chain, from railway employees to truck drivers, warehouse workers, and longshoremen at port terminals. In a 2016 economic impact report, the Port of Vancouver estimated that handling all maritime cargo created 36,000 jobs and $2.4 billion in wages within Metro Vancouver that paid an average of $68,000 a year, higher than the national average.

3. Buyer of B.C. energy: Alberta is considered Canada’s energy province more so than B.C., being the centre of the country’s oil production, but Alberta is also a big customer for B.C. energy. Electricity is less a factor — there is limited transmission capacity between the provinces, and B.C. was a net importer of Alberta power in 2016. However, the natural gas sector is northeastern B.C.’s core industry, and Alberta buys a substantial amount of B.C.’s burgeoning natural gas production, along with other liquid hydrocarbons that come with drilling in the energy-rich Montney shale formation that straddles the provincial border and surrounds Dawson Creek, Fort St. John and Hudson’s Hope. B.C. sold Alberta some $3.3 billion worth of natural gas in 2014, the latest trade figures available. B.C. Stats data for the same year report shipments of natural gas to Alberta at 23.6 billion cubic metres, a little more than half of the province’s production.

Lumber is among the top categories of material goods that B.C. manufacturers sell to Alberta.DARRYL DYCK /
THE CANADIAN PRESS

4. Buyer of B.C. merchandise: Both provinces sell the majority of their exports to the United States, but as inter-provincial trading partners, B.C. and Alberta are bigger customers for each other than China is for either. In a 2017 report, the Business Council of B.C. characterized their economies as arguably the most interdependent among any two provinces in Canada. B.C. sold $8.1 billion worth of material goods in 2014, more than twice what it traded with Ontario, its second-biggest inter-provincial trading partner, according to Statistics Canada data. Manufactured goods, at $3.7 billion, ranging from food products and lumber to mineral products and fabricated steel, were among the top categories of material goods that B.C. manufacturers sold into Alberta that year. And Statistics Canada reported that B.C.’s trade in merchandise grew by 56 per cent between 2009 and 2014, the most between any other province except for Newfoundland.

5. Consumer of B.C.-based services: As big as their trade in material goods is, B.C. and Alberta trade more in services, ranging from transportation and administrative support services to accounting and engineering professional services. In 2014, B.C. sold $9.5 billion worth of services to Alberta, which again dwarfed its trade with China (Ontario was the next closest at $8.3 billion in 2014). And between 2009 and 2014, the value of services traded between the two provinces increased by 49 per cent.

How Alberta benefits from B.C.

1. Buyer of Alberta oil and gas: The oilsands region has long been a driver of Alberta’s economic prowess and despite the most recent industry downturn, B.C. is dependent on Alberta energy. The current Kinder Morgan Inc. Trans Mountain pipeline supplies about 90 per cent of the fuel for Vancouver and the southern coast. About 25 per cent of B.C.’s fuel demands are supplied by Chevron’s Burnaby refinery, which is a Trans Mountain customer and buys from Alberta. B.C. imported $3.2 billion in refined petroleum products and $1.3 billion in fossil fuels from Alberta, according to the most recent interprovincial trade data from Statistics Canada reported in 2014. But with around 300,000 barrels per day of batch products — crude oil, gas, jet fuel, refined petroleum — moving through the pipeline, there’s a catch. While Trans Mountain allows Alberta to sell to B.C., it’s also an essential corridor for Alberta companies to access U.S. and overseas markets. A third of Alberta oil is carried to market through the pipeline.

The massive West Edmonton Mall is a big draw for tourists from B.C.Edmonton Tourism

2. Head east, West Coast friends: B.C. may have Pacific coastline and a mild climate to play up on glossy travel brochures, but Alberta has its own pull as a tourist destination. Alberta’s tourism industry is worth more than $8 billion a year to its economy with draws that include Rocky Mountain locales, northern lights getaways, Edmonton’s massive mall and world famous events like the Calgary Stampede. Outside of Albertans enjoying a staycation, British Columbians are the province’s major source of tourists. There were more than a million overnight visits recorded by B.C. residents in 2015, representing eight per cent of total visitation. Visits from B.C., Saskatchewan and other Canadian provinces were collectively worth $1.5 billion to Alberta, according to an analysis of 2015 travel statistics published last August by the Alberta government. Road traffic between the two provinces is heavy, with more than 8.15 million vehicles travelling through the Banff Park gate in 2016. The Jasper Park Gate recorded nearly 1.7 million trips that same year.

More than 70 per cent of Canadaâs beef is processed in Alberta.Postmedia Wire

3. Plenty of beef: It will come as a surprise to nobody that B.C. loves to chow down on Alberta beef. According to Statistics Canada, British Columbian women consume, on average, about 14.5 kilograms of red meat each year, and men eat close to 26 kilograms. Beef production contributes around $15 billion to Canada’s GDP each year. Most of it comes from Alberta’s fair pastures, where more than 70 per cent of Canada’s beef is processed. Alberta exports $554 million of fresh and frozen beef and veal to B.C. Alberta also exports a fair chunk of leather to its western neighbours. According to the most recent statistics, in 2014 Alberta textiles — including leather — made up about $5.5 million worth of B.C. imports. Obviously, then, not everyone is coming to Calgary to grab their cowboy boots and belts during Stampede. But they should. Because it’s the greatest outdoor show on earth.

4. Purchaser of non-alcoholic food and beverages: Leaving beef aside for one moment, non-alcoholic food and beverage exports from Alberta to B.C. make up a whopping $1.3 billion in trade. That’s a lot of prize-winning Sylvan Star Grizzly Gouda, Brassica mustard, Cheemo perogies and Porters tonic syrups. Fun fact: Alberta has more than 50 million acres of total farmland area used for crop and livestock production, and a good chunk of that produces ingredients for processed products, some of which end up in British Columbia. Alberta would love to send more of its craft beer west, but B.C.’s relatively closed market for alcohol sales makes that virtually impossible. Calgary-based Big Rock has a brewery in B.C. to help it access the local market.

5. Eat your grains (and farm products): Golden layers of farmland scattered with hay bales offer up more than just beautiful scenery driving through the Prairies. Alberta exported $83.7 million in grains and other crop products to its B.C. neighbour in 2014, according to the most recent interprovincial trade data from Statistics Canada. That includes canola, oilseeds and wheat. Along with Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Alberta is a formidable grower of Canadian canola, which contributes $26.7 billion to the national economy, according to the Canola Council of Canada. But 90 per cent of the product is exported globally as seed. B.C. spent more than double what it purchased in grain on farm products, such as animal feed, fertilizer and unprocessed milk. In 2014, the province paid Alberta nearly $183 million for farm products.

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